January 17, 2012

Rabid Reads: "Monsters of L.A." by Lisa Morton

Monsters of L.A.

by Lisa Morton

Bad Moon Books
(2011)

321 pages

ISBN
9780983779933

I'm a fan of themed anthologies. An editor has an overarching idea
and assorts the stories from various authors into some semblance that
helps bring the whole thing together. So, it stands to reason I ought
to check out a collection of short stories by a single author, all
under the umbrella of a single theme. In Lisa Morton's case, she's
arranged twenty stories involving two key ingredients: monsters and
her hometown of Los Angeles.

Monsters of
L.A. starts off with one of the
most iconic monsters of all, Frankenstein's monster. Lisa's
incarnation isn't the one from Mary Shelley's classic tale, or even
the Boris Karloff shambling giant, but a very frail, very human
character named Daniel Moss. He and many of the other monsters that
appear in this collection are reflections of the city in which they
live, while other monsters are definitely of a more fantastical
nature and still offer some glimpse of Los Angeles that Lisa feels
deserves a brief spotlight.

A
few of the stories are interconnected in various ways, either through
being a direct followup like "The Bride" is to
"Frankenstein", or through allusions and passing mentions
like "The Phantom." There are also some aspects of the city
that crop up periodically through the book, like Lisa's appreciation
for architecture and fascination with a couple of the city's urban
legends. There are moments where the book feels like a gruesome type
of Pulp Fiction, with
the focus jumping from place and place and person to person while
still clinging to a singular ideal.

Like any collection, themed or otherwise, not every story resonated
with me, and a couple felt like mere interludes before diving into
richer subject matter. A couple of the favorites I'd recommend to
anyone reading this collection are "The Phantom," which is
a saddening story of a musician's fall from grace and an unexpected
glimmer of solace; "Cat People," which explores one of
those urban legends that I'd never heard of before called La
Japonesa; and "The Hunchback" with its strikingly topical
look at homophobia and bullying in schools.

Unlike
other collections and anthologies, where I feel free to jump around
and read stories at whim, I kind of felt like this collection needed
to be read from front to back, kind of like how you listen to certain
albums beginning to end. Pink Floyd, anyone? While comparing this
book to one of those iconic records like The Wall
or Dark Side of the Moon
might be a stretch, it's a good book that really shows a love and
abiding dedication to a city that is long fabled as a glitzy train
wreck. Monsters of L.A. might
not be a love letter to the city, but it's definitely a love letter
to monsters.